Travel Top 5: The world’s fastest trains

bigbug21, via Wikimedia Commons04.18.2011

Here in Canada, we’ve been debating the advantages of a high-speed rail network for decades, but in other parts of the world, they are actually building them and travellers enjoy rapid transit between cities. Here are the world’s five fastest trains in commercial operation.

bigbug21
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5. E5 Shinkansen, Tokyo to Sin Aomori, Japan

While Japan has a record for the fastest maglev train at an eye-popping 581 km/h, it’s fastest bullet train , or Shinkansen, that runs on conventional rails in normal operation is the new E5 series that began travelling from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori last month. It is capable of speeds of 320 km/h, but is capped to 300 km/h.Toshinori Baba
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4. KTX-Sancheon, South Korea

Perhaps its name in Korea sounds swifter than the English translation, but the Sancheon, or cherry salmon, is the fastest thing on rails in the Asian country. Designed to hit speeds of 330 km/h, its normal operating speed is 305 km/h.G43
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3. SNCF TGV Sud-Est - Paris to Lyon, France

A modified version of one of France’s TGV trains holds the absolute rail speed record of 574.8 km/h, but that is with a souped-up engine on a test track and not in commercial operation. The fastest French train in normal service is the one that plies the route from Paris to Lyon where it has hit a maximum speed of 380 km/h.Chris0693
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2. AVE S-103 - Madrid to Zaragoza, Spain

The Valaro-E is a train built by Siemens and is dubbed the AVE in Spain which is a play on the Spanish word for bird. It set a train speed record in 2006 when it hit 403.7 km/h between Guadalajara and Calatyud in Spain. It normally runs at speeds of about 350 km/h.Sese Ingolstadt
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1. CRH380A - Beijing to Shanghai, China

Originally, China imported Japanese technology for its high-speed rail network, but has since been designing and building its own trains. These trains have been toppling speed records with regularity. Other modified trains on special test tracks have gone faster, but this train typically averages speeds of 380 km/h during normal operation and has topped out at 487.3 km/h on one of its journeys.Slwwp-haav
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